UCI Class 2 Andalucia Bike Race

All going to plan this time tomorrow I should be sat in a nice hotel in Cordoba Spain. This will be my first international trip of the year; I’m travelling to Spain to race the 6 day UCI world ranking Andalucia Bike Race. The race is completed in pairs; I’ll be teaming up with Josh Ibbett who I’m also racing the Cape Epic with at the end of March.

My bags are packed but the bike box is dangerously close to being overweight, hopefully the airport staff are in a good mood and are feeling kind at check in! Having missed this race in 2011 due to injury I’ve been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to take my place on the start line in Cordoba for nearly a year. Over the 6 days we’ll cover around 400km’s of the areas finest trails.

Depending on the availability of internet access we’ll hopefully be able to send updates and possibly even some video footage! Keep an eye on the Ben Thomas Racing facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ben-Thomas-Racing/330790256947713

Since my last update training has been going well, I completed one high volume high intensity week, followed by this low volume high intensity week as I taper for Andalucia. I wont be starting this race fresh but there are bigger objectives further down the line including the Cape Epic which is only 30 days away!!

For daily stage results keep an eye on http://www.andaluciabikerace.com/

No racing, just training

This afternoon’s blog was meant to be a story of another race, possibly another race victory but instead as you know it snowed and the Gorrick race was cancelled. As snow fell last night I went to bed still looking forward to racing, hoping it wouldn’t be too bad but no such luck as the weather beat us all.

Since my last update I’ve been enjoying plenty of time riding bone dry trails with numerous 6 hour plus rides, I was pretty happy with the 80 mile mountain bike ride I did on Thursday but I’m a little disappointed to have missed out on the opportunity to do another long endurance ride on what were dry trails yesterday.

On these recent cold wintery days my Montane clothing has been keeping me warm and on Thursdays ride the freezing conditions weren’t an issue. With the pockets of my Montane Hyena jacket packed with Clif Bar’s and my Lezyne saddle bag filled with spares I departed at 9am with the only thought being whether I should be taking my Exposure lights with me! The epic ride started off following one of my normal 60 miles mountain bike routes but as I was nearing three quarters distance I decided I’d divert off route to do the other long loop we often do. Doing these two routes together in one day wasn’t something I’d done before but the clear blue skies and dry trails were inspiring. Stopping off at Mountain Trax for a catch up with progress of the store refurbishment and a bottle refill was completed quickly as by now I’d already been out for nearly five and a half hours and had another 15 miles of singletrack riding left to do before darkness fell. In the end the 80 miles seemed to roll around pretty quickly in part thanks to the huge amounts of fun I’d been having on the big wheeled Santa Cruz Highball, this thing really does eat up the miles.

Looking out the window now the snow is melting which I’m thankful for because there’s only so many intervals sessions on the indoor rollers I can cope with! Interval sessions have crept into my weekly training schedule and will feature most weeks from now until the end of the season. The feeling of sprinting up a hill feeling like your going to be sick, or starring at a brick wall for a couple of hours isn’t much fun and isn’t the reason why we ride our bikes but as all racers know, if it make us faster and brings better race results then its worthwhile.

With no Gorrick race today my next race will be Andalucia Bike Race; this Spanish race will be my first stage race of the year. I’ll be pairing up with fellow Santa Cruz Bikes rider Josh Ibbett for the 5 day event. Check out http://www.andaluciabikerace.com/ for more details of that race. For more details on my race schedule for the year check out http://benthomas88.blogspot.com/p/2010-races.html

Thanks for reading.
Ben Thomas

None of this would be possible without the help of my sponsors
Mountain Trax http://www.mountain-trax.com/
Santa Cruz Bikes http://www.santacruzbikes.co.uk/
Montane http://www.montane.co.uk/
Fox Suspension http://www.mojo.co.uk/
Hope http://www.hopetech.com/
Rapid Racer Products http://www.rapidracerproducts.com/
USE http://www.use1.com/
Exposure http://www.exposurelights.com/
Vermont Images http://www.vermont-images.co.uk/
Lezyne http://www.lezyne.com/
Jagwire http://www.jagwireusa.com/
Kenda Tires http://www.kendausa.com/
Phenix Metabolic http://www.phxmet.com/
Crank Brothers http://www.crankbrothers.com/
Clif Bar http://www.clifbar.com/
Scott UK http://www.scott-sports.com/

First race, first win! Brass Monkey 22 January 2012

First races of the year are always nervous days, no matter how well your training has gone over the winter there’s still an unknown of how well your body will cope with racing.

It’s only down to the hard work of all 16 sponsors that I made the start line today, last year I didn’t get my race bike until early April so I have to thank all the sponsors for meeting the tight deadlines which I was pursuing. Thanks also to Mountain Trax for getting the bikes built so quickly.

Starting the season at a Brass Monkey race has become a tradition for me over the last 3 years since the race series began. These races have helped me build early season form and I’m convinced racing these events on wet winter days was a huge help towards my success at last years Kielder 100 in those torrential conditions. No such bad weather on Sunday though as patchy blue skies and mild temperatures warmed the race arena.

Having missed the first 2 races of the series opting to train through the winter I wouldn’t be gridded at the start and therefore found myself back on the third or fourth row. Off the start I managed to negotiate my way through the pack and took a wide line around the first left hand 90 degree turn on the fireroad passing loads of people who choose the tight inside line.

By the time we entered the first singletrack I had the leader in my sight and sped past at the first opportunity. From then onwards I kept the tempo high edging out a lead over the chasing riders. My biggest troubles for the remainder of the race were negotiating hundreds of backmarkers and lapped riders which can prove pretty tricky when people are getting tired in a long endurance event.

Over the first 4 laps my lap times were nearly as quick as the 2 hour winner which was good news. The bike was fantastic and worked perfectly, I choose Kenda Slant Six tyres which hooked up well in the dry conditions and rolled really quickly. The race course was fantastic fun with the 29er Hope wheels and Fox F29 forks ironing out the bumps.

It was great to win the first race of the season and I hope it’s the first of many victories this year. Next up I have another hard 2 weeks of training before my next race which is the first round of the Gorrick Spring Series.

Thanks for reading.
Ben Thomas

None of this would be possible without the help of my sponsors
Mountain Trax http://www.mountain-trax.com/
Santa Cruz Bikes http://www.santacruzbikes.co.uk/
Montane http://www.montane.co.uk/
Fox Suspension http://www.mojo.co.uk/
Hope http://www.hopetech.com/
Rapid Racer Products http://www.rapidracerproducts.com/
USE http://www.use1.com/
Exposure http://www.exposurelights.com/
Vermont Images http://www.vermont-images.co.uk/
Lezyne http://www.lezyne.com/
Jagwire http://www.jagwireusa.com/
Kenda Tires http://www.kendausa.com/
Phenix Metabolic http://www.phxmet.com/
Crank Brothers http://www.crankbrothers.com/
Clif Bar http://www.clifbar.com/
Scott UK http://www.scott-sports.com/

Progress

It’s a new year and a new set of sponsors have been announced, Ben Thomas Racing has no less than 16 sponsors. I’m really happy to have the sponsorship line up sorted and think you’ll agree that the sponsors are some of the best brands in the industry.

Having Mountain Trax as title sponsor didn’t take much persuasion, leaving TORQ and returning to my original team felt like returning home. It’s going to be a great place to be and hopefully having the support from Mountain Trax, team director John, and my friendly teammates will help push my results to the next level.

I have some key goals set out for the year ahead, I’m not quite ready to tell all about these but the crucial people on the team know what these are and are ready to help me get there.

Hopefully you’ve found the facebook page, if not head over there now and click the like button. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ben-Thomas-Racing/330790256947713

I’ve just finished my third block of base training and have totalled my biggest training hours ever for November and December so things are going well. After a weeks recovery I’ll start to introduce some speed work and then the racing will begin, see you on the start line!

Over Christmas I joined the Mountain Trax team for a team ride and skill session. Here's a little video i've put together, filmed by Chris White.

Thanks for reading.
Ben Thomas

None of this would be possible without the help of my sponsors
Mountain Trax http://www.mountain-trax.com/
Santa Cruz Bikes http://www.santacruzbikes.co.uk/
Montane http://www.montane.co.uk/
Fox Suspension http://www.mojo.co.uk/
Hope http://www.hopetech.com/
Rapid Racer Products http://www.rapidracerproducts.com/
USE http://www.use1.com/
Exposure http://www.exposurelights.com/
Vermont Images http://www.vermont-images.co.uk/
Lezyne http://www.lezyne.com/
Jagwire http://www.jagwireusa.com/
Kenda Tires http://www.kendausa.com/
Phenix Metabolic http://www.phxmet.com/
Crank Brothers http://www.crankbrothers.com/
Clif Bar http://www.clifbar.com/
Scott UK http://www.scott-sports.com/

Ben Thomas Racing to launch January 1st

Add the new facebook page to read the press release
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ben-Thomas-Racing/330790256947713?sk=wall

December Update

You might notice that a few things here have changed, behind the scenes plenty has been happening and on January 1st you can be the first to hear who I’ll be riding for by following me on my new Facebook page, the page isn’t live yet but will be Sunday 1st. Facebook Fan Page This blog will continue but the facebook page will be a central hub for posting links to blogs, race news, photos, and videos.

I’m sorry for not keeping you updated more often but once again the winter recovery week creates a little more time for doing things like this. Sponsors are now all confirmed and Christmas started a couple of weeks ago when the first boxes of products arrived.

After lots of work we've created a new kit design and I’m excited to reveal the new look but this will have to wait.

Since the last blog training has continued successfully and today I finished my power building phase in the gym. On the bike miles are clocking up well and I’m well ahead of last years numbers.

Also in the last month I’ve spent some time fulfilling media appointments including a fun photoshoot with MBUK, look out for the article in January or February's magazine.

Thank you for all your support and I hope you continue to enjoy reading my blog, and watching my videos in 2012. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Haldon Forest Video

So the sponsorship search is almost over, we have all but 1 confirmation and i'm excited about what's been acheived but really the work is just starting. With Novembers training just ending im happy to have logged in the largest number of hours training i've ever done for this month of the year ever. Hope it all pays of next year.

I filmed this next video the day after the final British XC round in September. It features a number of very fast mountain biker friends who stopped off at Haldon Forest near Exeter on the way home from the race.